Todd McLellan on Andreas Lilja, but first a reminder that Ottawa awaits Dany Heatley this season

We’ll get to Todd McLellan’s thoughts on Andreas Lilja — he coached the guy, after all — in a moment.

First, though, a little reminder that everyone ought to circle December 2 on your Sharks schedule because that will be Dany Heatley’s first trip back to Ottawa since his trade from the Senators to the Sharks one year ago.

And in case you thought that Canada’s capital may have gone into forgive-and-forget mode, consider this latest kerfuffle that showed up on the SLAM! web site when prospect Zack Smith chose No. 15 for his jersey:

“Senators fans haven’t looked at jersey No. 15 too fondly in the past year or so.

But when Zack Smith was asked in the off-season if he wanted to change from 47 to something more hockey-traditional, he requested No. 15 “sheepishly” because of all its association with good, not evil.

“Dany Heatley did more than tarnish his name and sully the sweater when he whined his way out of town, remember?

“ ‘It’s the number I wore for all minor hockey and junior, and I’m glad to have it back,’ Smith said after the informal players skate at Sensplex Tuesday, before chuckling when asked about the Heatley tie-in. ‘Obviously, it’s big shoes to fill. He was a former 50-goal scorer. But there was no problem getting it.

“ ‘I got a few chirps about it. The guys were heckling me a bit, but I’m glad to have it.’

Heatley smiled when I ran that story past him this morning, then took the high road.

“It’s a good number,” he said. “Good for him and I wish him all the best.”

****No way of knowing yet, of course, how the Andreas Lilja tryout will work out. But here’s what Todd McLellan had to say about the Swedish defenseman that he and assistant coach Jay Woodcroft coached in Detroit before coming to San Jose.

“He’s a stay-at-home defenseman, understands his limitations,” McLellan said. “He’s very solid, he’s a heavy player. He defends well, a very good penalty killer and blocks a lot of shots.

“He understands us at coaches — Jay and myself anyhow — and how we want to play so there’s a familiarty there for him as well as for us.

“After that, it’s wide open. We’ve seen him play some tremendous games in the league and he was part of a championship team. Can he still do it? Will he fit our needs? We’ll have a few weeks to make those decisions.”

McLellan said the Sharks expect Lilja to be 100 percent healthy.

“From there he’ll be given every opportunity to play his way into a contract situation,” the coach continued. “With that being said, he’s competing against some young players as well as some veterans and he knows exactly where he stands.”

McLellan then delivered what has become his traditional line at the start of each training camp in San Jose:

“It doesn’t matter who plays for us. We just need the best team possible. It doesn’t matter what your name is.”

*****McLellan said it was unlikely he and his staff would be ready to announce the official training camp roster until noon Friday at the earliest. At that point, the players also would be divided into three groups for separate practices and scrimmages.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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